Massive Football Field-Sized Asteroid Comes Close to Earth in Surprise Flyby

Massive Football Field-Sized Asteroid Comes Close to Earth in Surprise Flyby

An artist's concept of a"generic asteroid flyby. Credit Shutterstock

Sherry Houston
|
18 April, 2018, 03:21

When an asteroid estimated to be about the size of a football field zoomed past Earth early Sunday, April 15, astronomers had only discovered it a couple of hours before. Closest approach to Earth occurred at around 2:41 a.m. EDT (6:41 UTC; translate UTC to your time) on April 15.

The people of Earth were not even get notified about warehouse sized Astroid that passed the Earth in the range of half the distance of the Moon on Sunday. The asteroids which are present in this belt do not pose any threat to the Earth.

This GE3 is much bigger than that of 2013 asteroid but was first observed by the Catalina Sky Survey few hours before passing the earth.

The 2018 GE3 asteroid was discovered just one day before it skimmed past Earth in what scientists are calling a "surprise" flyby. "Hours later, amateur astronomer Michael Jäger of Weißenkirchen Austria video-recorded the space rock gliding through the southern constellation Serpens", Spaceweather.com reported. That's about three to six times wider than the space rock that penetrated the Earth's atmosphere in 2013 and exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in Russian Federation, packing 20 to 30 times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, notesEarthSky.

Had the object, first observed at the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona on Saturday, moving at a speed of some 66,174 miles per hour (106,497 km/h), hit the Earth, its impact would be hard to imagine. According to a report, an asteroid may be broken into pieces while entering the earth atmosphere but this size asteroids won't do so.

Asteroid 2018 GE3 is said to have an estimated diameter of between 157 and 361 feet, which makes it at least three times the size of the space rock that flew over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013. But according to Andrew Rader, a researcher and engineer at SpaceX, 2018 GE3 is "vast enough to destroy a city".

If asteroid 2018 GE3 had hit Earth, a great portion of the space rock might have disintegrated.

Recommended

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had granted bail to Aseemanand in Samjhauta train blast case in 2014. According to a report by The Indian Express , Bhavesh had allegedly placed two bombs at Ajmer Dargah.

But Shreyas Gopal applied the brakes and scalped second crucial wicket of de Villiers for 20, third wicket to fall off short ball. While he was on the losing team , Yuzvendra Chahal had reason to be pleased with his performance on an individual level.

During this week's hearings Zuckerberg talked about users having informed consent but that's not happening in the courts. If I can hit those three marks, I'd be happy to use anything. "I can have our team get back to you afterwards".

Milwaukee and Boston split their four-game, regular-season series, with each team winning once on the other's home court. Boston's Terry Rozier hit the expected game-winner for Boston to take a three-point lead with just over a second left.

Hopefully the Sega Mega Drive Mini will be similarly priced, if not cheaper, to compete with Nintendo's offerings. AtGames is the company responsible for the Atari Flashback and Sega Genesis Flashback mini-consoles.

Lucasfilm has debuted a brand new TV spot for Solo: A Star Wars Story , which is just weeks away from its release. Han and Chewbacca have always interacted like an old married couple and it seems like that started very early.

Other worldwide technology companies, such as Facebook and Alphabet's Google, have also clashed recently with Russian regulators. Roskomnadzor head Alexander Zharov said the ban would be enforced soon but would not say exactly when TASS reported.

Bandai Namco announced this morning that the Switch version of the definitive edition would have to be pushed back. All of these platforms excluding the Nintendo Switch will receive Dark Souls: Remastered on May 25th.

The incident happened about 7:15 a.m.as students were arriving for class, Watkins told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. "We're not sure exactly why he came to school with a knife", said Sauk Rapids Police Chief Perry Beise .

The decision was a creative one by GOLDOC, not the faut of the host broadcaster. "Again, we got that wrong". Koch was particularly scathing about Jack Morton Events as "not even being part of the Commonwealth".

PFLP: Goals of Syria Strike Not Achieved
In a Sunday Telegraph opinion piece, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson reinforced U.K. What happens next, she said, is up to Assad and to his Russian and Iranian allies.

RPD Arrests Armed Robbery Suspects
Police said an indictment warrant was issued for a sixth suspect, Tyler Newkirk, 21, of Newburgh, who is still being sought. Las Cruces police arrested one of the three men suspected of committing an armed robbery on a homeowner lateSunday evening.

China to roll out new negative lists for foreign investors
China imposed ownership restrictions in 1994, limiting foreign carmakers to owning no more than a 50% share of any local venture. Investigators concluded dumping of USA sorghum "substantially damaged" Chinese competitors, the Commerce Ministry said.

Jerry Brown Rejects Feds' Initial National Guard Border Plans
Other Republican governors not located on the border have also said they would support the effort with troops including Iowa Gov. Texas has seen the biggest deployment, with 650 sent to the border, while Arizona has dispatched 250, and New Mexico about 60.

Alert over 'malicious' Russian cyber attack
While hundreds of local businesses have been affected by the cyber attack, no information was compromised, the ABC said. UK, US and France all participated in the strikes. "We condemn this latest activity in the strongest possible terms.

Leave Facebook to founder Zuckerberg
On Friday Facebook said it had no plans to build such a tool. "So, how do we capture diverse thoughts", he said. The company has denied the allegations that it misused data to influence the 2016 US presidential election.

Turkey 'uncomfortable' with US-Russia tensions in Syria
Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said that both Russian Federation and the USA are on the wrong side in Syria. Turkey has backed Anti-Assad forces, as Russian Federation and Iran heavily support the Syrian president.